A Change of Pace

For most of us, there’s something daunting about signing up for that first 100-mile ride. While the distance can be intimidating for anyone, less experienced cyclists may also worry that they’re going to spend the day alone and in pain.

Richard Fries wants to change that. As the announcer for the Best Buddies Challenge charity rides, he has seen firsthand how many people struggle to finish a long event, or get off the bike and vowed to never do it again.

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To keep riders at the back of the pack motivated, Fries came up with an idea he calls “welding”: He recruited other strong cyclists to help shepherd the rear of the group to the finish and “weld” together any gaps. “We move to the very back of the field at the beginning of the ride, and then we slowly advance, riding two-by-two, and urging those we pass to get on our wheel,” Fries explained. “We roll in to the finish six hours after starting with dozens of beginners and novices who expected to finish in eight hours, and they are practically weeping for joy.”

I was a little skeptical: Taking two hours off of a 100-mile ride is a lot to ask of someone new to cycling. But on October 18, I rolled up to the back of the Best Buddies start field in front of the Washington Monument, ready to weld.

Fries and I were joined by Cannondale professional cyclist Cameron Wurf. We rolled slowly through the closed streets of Washington, DC, with hundreds of other cyclists pedaling to support Best Buddies’s mission of giving people with intellectual and developmental disabilities opportunities for friendship, employment, and a fulfilling life.

When we would pass riders, Fries would encourage them to join in, insisting that we’d be done in six hours. One by one, people latched on and we rolled into the first rest stop incident-free with a group of 20 riders.

Fries had two main tactics to keep the group together. First, he put the weaker riders up front and the stronger riders in the back, so that the slower riders could set the pace and have stronger riders behind them to help if they got into trouble. The second was to make the ride harder in places where cyclists tend to take it easy, but encourage riders to ease up on challenging terrain. This way the group could gain time on the flats and descents, but stay together when the road pitched upwards.

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Jeremiah Angel

Two special guests joined our pack. Anthony Shriver, the founder of Best Buddies hung back and talked to everyone in the group, and George Hincapie accompanied him for the first half of the ride. (In case you were wondering, Hincapie doesn’t have his signature vein anymore—I was all ready to snap a picture when he started talking about his laser surgery.)

Elspeth Huyett

As the group stretched and broke throughout the windy day, Wurf and Fries were always available with encouragement and a push. Wurf would ride up next to struggling riders and start talking to them. At first, I felt bad for them—when I’m struggling the last thing I want to do is talk—but it seemed to make it easier for people. “See, he’s doing it right!” Fries said. “You always want to keep them talking so they keep breathing.”

Jeremiah Angel

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At the start of the ride Fries cautioned that you could end up gaining weight from the rest stops, and he was right. No stale energy bars and watered-down Gatorade here: We refueled with all kinds of hot and cold drinks, sandwiches, fruit, and even frittatas (seriously, grab two of these at every stop, you’ll thank me).

Over the course of the hundred miles, I had the opportunity to talk to a lot of riders and learn how much Best Buddies means to people. Many riders I talked with had gotten involved through their businesses, which support the program by providing employment opportunities to Buddies.

Six and a half hours after we started, we rolled into the finish and were greeted by the Best Buddies cheer team and gold medals. Not everyone we started the day with was there, but a lot of them were. As the afternoon went on, I saw more and more riders that I had seen on the course earlier in the day roll in one by one.

Jeremiah Angel

Two women who were in our group were dubbed “Bling 1” and “Bling 2” in honor of their bejeweled kits, bikes, and helmets. They were troupers, but definitely started to feel the effort towards the end, and Wurf was there to help them. “He was hands-on and refused to let us give up and drop off the group even when our legs were screaming and we were complaining,” said Bling 2, aka Tracey Bogard.

As someone who rides a lot and looks at long rides as means to a greater goal, it was inspiring to see how happy all the participants were to finish. It’s so easy to lose touch with why we ride when it’s all about average speeds and Strava segments. Could I have done the ride faster? Yes. Would I have had the same experience? Not a chance.

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